Russell Gadd wrote:
> I use Windows Media Player to listen to podcasts recorded in MP3 format 
> ( in particular http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm ) and am looking for 
> an application in Linux (Ubuntu or Debian) to replace this.
> 
> One nice feature of WMP is that you can speed up the playback and it 
> seems to recognise that you don't want the corresponding increase in 
> pitch which naturally results from speeding up. I tried the default 
> Ubuntu solution for playing MP3s but it doesn't have a speed control. I 
> found another player but it just runs faster and makes the voices sound 
> like Pinky and Perky.
> 
> WMP compensates the pitch and up to a speed of around 2 times (just) it 
> sounds like normal speech spoken very quickly and you can understand the 
> speech clearly. The advantage is it cuts down the time required to 
> listen to a 1 hour podcast significantly. At times I need to replay 
> sections more slowly when the explanations get a bit complicated, and 
> WMP has a useful slider to adjust the speed.
> 
> Does anyone know of a Linux app which can perform this trick?
> 
> Russell Gadd
> 
Rhythmbox is good at podcasts (if you're of the Gnome persuasion).  I 
don't think it does the pitch trick yet, but it uses gstreamer, and 
http://live.gnome.org/GStreamer/SoC2007 says that there are plans for an 
'accelerated playback plugin'.  Maybe it will happen one day.
cheers
Chris
-- 
Chris Dennis                                  cgdennis@???
Fordingbridge, Hampshire, UK